The War Upon Religion / Being an Account of the Rise and Progress of Anti-Christianism in Europe

by Francis A. Cunningham

Opening of the Nineteenth Century.

Never did the shadows of night gather with more sorrow and hopelessness around the afflicted Spouse of Christ, than on that sad August 29, 1799, when, in the prison house of Valence, the form of the gentle Pius VI. lay still and cold in death. Gazing out from that Chamber of silence, upon the races of men, she might well be tempted to apply to the troubled world that expression whereby the prophet characterized the abode of eternal misery: Ubi nullus ordo, sed sempiternus horror inhabitat; "where no order, but sempiternal horror dwelleth." Politically, all Europe was in a frenzy of hope and despair, of triumph and defeat, of luxury and of poverty. The directing reins had been torn from the hands of government, and wild, uncouth, savage, insane mobs held high carnival over the ruins of desecrated homes. In the Sanctuary itself the forces of disorder had pushed their way, Jansenist, Gallican, Josephist and every other form of fanatical heresy fighting for possession of those altars from which they had driven the ministers of the living God. The Church, indeed, had been so utterly buried beneath the accumulated ruins of her external institutions, and so utterly prostrated through the humiliations poured out upon her, that a triumphant world was almost forgetting that she was, indeed, a power to be dealt with. And now, when the news that her visible head was laid low, was spread abroad, the exultation of anti-Christianism knew no bounds. In Paris, in every dark alley and lane, as well as in the halls of the mighty the voice of congratulation was heard, for that he, who had stood forth a barrier against the immoral slavery of whole peoples to the passions of the demagogue and the anarchist, was now silent forever. Jacobin, Constitutionalist, Jansenist, Gallican, Caesarist and Protestant, all united in the conviction that Catholicity was at an end, and that the superannuated institution of the Papacy had fallen into a grave from which no power human or divine might ever again resuscitate it. They had forgotten the promise made by Christ of old: "For, behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world."

In the meantime divine Providence had so ordered the course of European affairs as to confound all the schemes of the enemy. Just as Napoleon Bonaparte was on his way to the distant campaign of Egypt, the great Powers coalesced in one desperate attempt to overthrow the domination of France, Russia and Austria, with their combined forces, drove the French from Northern Italy, and finally Austria alone contrived to wrest from French control all those rich provinces for the conquest of which Bonaparte had expended so much blood and treasure. Thus, it so happened, that when the great General returned from his Egyptian wars, all Italy was in the hands of the Austrians and Neapolitans. In Europe at the same time, George III. was reigning in England, Francis II. in Austria, Paul I. in Russia, while the Directory at Paris dominated directly or indirectly all the more insignificant States.

In the Church itself the administration of all external ecclesiastical affairs was rendered almost impossible. The Cardinals were dispersed in all directions; ten of them with Cardinal Albani, Dean of the Sacred College found refuge in Naples, whence they sailed at the invitation of Austria to Venice.

CONCLAVE OF VENICE.

In the hush that followed the death of Pius VI. the great question began to be asked: How and where shall the Conclave be held? It is true, the political changes of the past year had left Italy entirely free for such deliberations; and moreover, the martyred Pope, before reaching his place of exile, in 1798, had provided with singular wisdom for just such an event. In his Encyclical, Quum in superiori anno, written while at Florence, he had enjoined upon the Cardinals that, in the event of his death in exile, the Conclave for the election of his successor should be held in that city which, while in the dominions of a Catholic sovereign, should contain the largest gathering of Cardinals, together with any others who should join them. This provision of the late Pope seemed thus to point to Venice, especially as the Emperor, Francis II., graciously offered for that purpose the Benedictine Abbey of San Georgio, on an island directly opposite to St. Mark's Square. There, accordingly, it was determined to hold the Conclave.

Out of the forty-six Cardinals of the Sacred College thirty-five repaired to Venice. Among these were many of international celebrity, as statesmen or writers upon questions of general importance. Towards the end of November the Conclave had practically begun its preparatory business; Mgr. Hercules Consalvi was elected its secretary, and among his first official acts was that of sending to the European Powers a notification of the death of Pope Pius VI. Among those thus remembered was the exile of France, Louis XVIII., known at the time as the Count of Provence, and living in Poland. As the elder brother of the murdered Louis XVI., he was regarded among the Courts of Europe as the rightful sovereign of France.

Before the Conclave was formally opened the usual interest of the Powers began to be felt, although only Austria made any public avowal of its determination to interfere in regard to the choice of a new Pope. France itself was not altogether indifferent as is shown by the correspondence both of Napoleon and of his Minister, Talleyrand. It was only two years previously that the General, then at Mombello, in Italy, wrote to his government: "The Pope is yet unwell. I beg you to send me new powers with reference to the Conclave, so that when it becomes necessary, I may communicate them to the French minister at Rome. We have the right to exclude one cardinal; and that one should be Albani, if he is put forward." Later still in the same year, 1797, he wrote to his brother, Joseph, at the time French ambassador in Rome: "Should the Pope die, do all in your power to prevent the election of another, and bring about a revolution. If that is impossible, do not permit Cardinal Albani to be considered. You should not merely use the right of exclusion; you must threaten the cardinals, declaring that I will march immediately on Rome." During the progress of the Conclave, Talleyrand wrote, on February 18, 1800, to Musquiz, the Spanish ambassador in Paris, protesting against the influence of Austria in the Conclave, declaring for reasons of no account except to himself, that the election from such Conclave must be illegal, and signifying that it would be for the interest of Spain to refuse to acknowledge such an election. As, however, there was only one French cardinal in Venice at the time, namely Maury, who was then entirely in the interests of Louis XVIII., it is easy to see that any direct influence from France would hardly be considered.

PIUS VII.

In the case of Austria the matter assumed greater importance. It is true that Austria had proven itself no generous upholder of Papal prerogatives for the fifty years past; yet, in the present hour, the prestige of Papal influence was something desirable especially by countries which still claimed to be Catholic. Moreover, the Sovereign of Austria was still adorned with the title of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire which he was not to lose until six years later; he was thus bound, in a way, to the interests of the Papacy. Still more, it was in his dominions, and under his protection that the Conclave was to be held. Hence, his determination to make use of every privilege, real or apparent, which he deemed inherent in his house.

It was with this purpose in view that the Emperor, Francis II., presented detailed instructions to Cardinal Herzan, who was to represent Austrian interests in the Conclave. The instructions are very sweeping in their scope, and were they followed out, the Conclave would have proved only a formality for ratifying the choice of Austria. They are as follows: "We oppose most seriously the election of any cardinal from the dominions of Spain, Sardinia, Naples, or Genoa; or any cardinal who has given evidences of devotion to the interests of any one of the three crowns mentioned. We oppose all cardinals of French origin, and all those who have shown any disposition to espouse the cause of France. Especially do we formally and absolutely exclude Cardinals Gerdil, Caprara, Antonelli, Maury, and those of the Doria family. Our paternal heart discerns only two cardinals whose qualifications promise a capability to encounter present difficulties.... In the first place stands Cardinal Mattei, in whom we place more confidence than in any other.... Our second choice is solely Cardinal Valenti." Unfortunately for the hopes of the Emperor, neither of the two cardinals mentioned was elected.

CARDINAL BELLISOMI.

The Conclave was formally opened on December 1, 1799. The cardinals were divided into three parties, one of which under the leadership of Cardinals Antonelli and Herzan espoused the candidacy of Cardinal Mattei; a second party was led by Cardinals Braschi and Albani; and in the interests of the papal prerogatives, gave their preferences to Cardinal Bellisomi at first, and later to Cardinal Gerdil; a third party called the volauti or unattached, voted independently; among these latter were the French Cardinal Maury, and the Neapolitan, Ruffo. In the first ballotings the votes stood 22 to 13 in favor of Bellisomi. When it became evident that the latter cardinal would soon secure the necessary two thirds of the votes, Cardinal Herzan contrived to turn the tide. Unfortunately for his interests, however, the favor of the Sacred College began to look to Cardinal Gerdil, one of those whom the Emperor had formally and absolutely excluded. Thereupon, Cardinal Herzan applied his right of veto, thus placing Cardinal Gerdil outside all possibility of election. Austria, however, could utilize its power of veto only once in a Conclave; hence the cardinals were now practically free to act in disregard to the wishes of Austria. In the meantime the favor had again turned to Bellisomi, and Cardinal Herzan begged as a matter of courtesy that the Austrian Court be asked in regard to its attitude towards the popular candidate. Much time was expended in sending a courier to Vienna and awaiting his return. In the meantime, Mgr. Consalvi, secretary of the Conclave, contrived to arouse interest in an entirely new candidate, a man whose saintly life and great learning was added to the fact that he appeared wholly outside the quarrels of the nations. This was Cardinal Chiaramonti, Bishop of Imola. Cardinal Maury took up the suggestion with enthusiasm, and employed all his eloquence to impress the Sacred College with the idea. As the Conclave had now lasted for one hundred and four days, the cardinals already weary of procrastination, were only too eager to manifest their approbation. When the final ballot was taken, on March 14, 1800, Cardinal Chiaramonti received every vote except his own. He was accordingly elected Pope, taking the name of Pius VII.

POPE PIUS VII.

Barnabas Louis Chiaramonti was born at Cesena, in the Legation of Forli, August 14, 1742. His father was Count Scipio Chiaramonti; his mother Jane, was a daughter of the Marquis of Ghini. The boyhood of the future Pope was without any of those marvelous incident which usually give promise of coming greatness. That he was nurtured in a love of God and of religion is evident from the character of his gentle mother, who in 1762, entered the Convent of the Carmelites, at Fano, where she died, in 1771, with the reputation of a saint. Indeed, many years later, the cause of her beatification was suggested to her illustrious son, then Pius VII., who with his characteristic delicacy, put the proposition aside lest his filial love might seem to dictate where motives of disinterested justice ought to preside.

At the age of sixteen, after finishing his course of studies at the College of Ravenna, Barnabas, feeling the call of God, abandoned the allurements of the world, and entered as a novice at the Benedictine Abbey of Santa Maria del Monte, near Cesena, where he received the name of Gregorio. His career of studies was completed in 1768, when he defended a series of theological propositions in the presence of Cardinal Ganganelli, destined the following year to become Pope Clement XIV. After his ordination to the priesthood he acted as professor in the Colleges of his Order, especially at Parma and at Rome. He was thus engaged at the Monastery of St. Calixtus in 1775, when Cardinal Braschi, his townsman and relative, ascended the throne of St. Peter, as Pope Pius VI. Through the good offices of the new Pope, the young monk was made an abbot of St. Paul outside the Walls; but this title thus conferred without the concurrence of the regular Chapter of the Order, while assuring some privileges, did not dispense the incumbent from obedience to the titular abbot. His conduct in the delicate post, thus thrust upon him, so charmed Pope Pius VI., that on his return from Vienna in 1782, he took the humble abbot away from his monastery and raised him to the episcopal See of Tivoli. For three years he governed that diocese with such rare wisdom and intelligence that the Sovereign Pontiff decided that he ought to be placed in a position wherein his abilities and zeal might have a wider field. Accordingly, in 1785, he was transferred to the See of Imola, and in the same year was created a cardinal.

He was Bishop of Imola more than ten years, when the Austrians, pursued by the armies of Bonaparte, took refuge at Bologna. His conduct in the wars that followed was dictated by the feeling of duty divinely committed to him. His courage in the face of the opposing armies won from Bonaparte an expression of admiration and praise; for when that General, on entering Ancona, found that the Bishop of the place had fled, he exclaimed in the presence of suite. "When I was at Imola, I found its Bishop at his post." In the uprising at Lugo against the French invaders, Cardinal Chiaramonti was at hand counselling patience on the part of the Italians, and later begging mercy when the French were preparing for sanguinary revenge. At times, as in his Christmas sermon of 1798, he encouraged the people to accept, at least under existing circumstances, the Democratic form of government then forced upon them, as being in no way "opposed to the Gospel, and requiring in fact the sublime virtues which are taught in the school of Jesus Christ, and which if practised religiously by you will redound to your own happiness, and to the glory and spirit of your Republic." During the year following the saintly Pope Pius VI. died at Valence and Cardinal Chiaramonti, a few weeks later repaired to Venice to become Pope Pius VII.

The general satisfaction manifested over the election of Pius VII. was not shared by Austria. Apart from the fact that her choice had been disregarded, it began to be rumored about that the new Pope was not altogether unwelcome to France, and that the new Consul not only admired but sought him. Nor was Austria slow in displaying marks of her displeasure. The ceremonies of the coronation and consecration coming so soon after the election, it was naturally supposed that the great Cathedral of St. Mark's would be offered for that purpose. This favor, however, the Emperor refused to grant, so that the new Pontiff was restricted to the insignificant monastery church of St. George for a function that called for the splendors of a mighty temple.

Austria went still farther in her vulgar reprisals. Her government had the hardihood to ask the Holy Father to visit Vienna before returning to his own States, alleging that "such a journey would prove an incalculable benefit to the Holy See, that the personal acquaintance of the Emperor would be very useful to His Holiness, and for the good of both Church and State, and that, since the Pope happened to be at Venice, he ought not lose so precious an occasion of undertaking a journey, the expenses for which should be payed out of the imperial treasury."

The Holy Father, though declining the offers of the Austrian Monarch, wrote to him within a week after his election, in terms full of fatherly affection, and ignoring altogether the cowardly treatment he had just received from that source. The answer of Francis II. was one of empty felicitation, which he proceeded at once to falsify by his subsequent actions. At that very time he sent to Venice a diplomatic agent, the Marquis Ghislen who declared that it was his master's formal intention to retain possession of the three Legations. It will be remembered that in 1797, the Pope, Pius VI., by the Treaty of Tollentino, ceded to France the Legations of Bologna, Ferrara and the Romagna. In the signing of this treaty Cardinal Mattei represented the Holy See. In 1799, the Austrians gained possession of the Legations by conquest over the French. It was for this reason that Austria desired to see Mattei elected to the papal throne, imagining that in such an event he would honor his signature to the document of Tollentino, by permitting Austria to keep her spoils of war. As the new Pope appeared too earnest a defender of papal rights, it was considered necessary to inform him in this categorical manner of Austria's intentions with regard to the conquest territory. The Pope opposed most strongly these claims, and announced his resolution of proceeding immediately to his own States. The natural route for such a destination would lead overland through the disputed Legations; but again Austria stood in the way compelling the Pope to proceed to his own territory by sea. In fact, on June 6, 1800, Pius VII. embarked on the Bellona, a small vessel which the Austrian government had placed at his disposal without the courtesy of providing its crew or provisions. The ship was so utterly unseaworthy, and the hap-hazard crew so inexperienced that the voyage which ought to have taken only twenty-four hours, consumed twelve days. Landing at Pesaro, in his own States, the Pope proceeded to Ancona, where the vessels of England and Russia harboring there, rendered him military honors. From Ancona to Rome the journey of the Holy Father proved to be a triumphal march. He arrived in the Eternal City on July 3, 1800, in the midst of a people intoxicated with joy. As he knelt before the great altar of St. Peter's, his heart expanded with gratitude to God, who, after permitting the exile of His Vicar for two long years, was now graciously providing for a new era for His afflicted Church.

One of the first acts of Pope Pius VII., after his election was the appointment of an official to act as his Secretary of State. Even in this matter the intermeddling policy of Austria made itself felt, for on being denied in so many other pretensions, the Emperor sought at least to control the Papacy through its chief functionary. Hence its request sent to the new Pope that he would favor Austria by appointing Cardinal Flangini to that post. The Holy Father answered that as he had not at present any State he could not appoint a Secretary of State; he would, however, name a pro-secretary, and in fact had already provided for such an official. The ecclesiastic chosen for this emergency was that Mgr. Ercole Consalvi, who had already acted as secretary for the Conclave.

CARDINAL CONSALVI.

This celebrated man was born at Rome, June 8, 1757, of a noble family. The eldest of five children, he was left an orphan in his earlier years. He was educated at Urbino, by the Piarist brothers founded by St. Joseph Calasanzio in 1617. After four years at this school, he entered the school at Frascati, lately opened by the Cardinal Duke of York. The latter was a grandchild of King James II. of England, and a brother of Charles Edward the Pretender, known in Italy as the Earl of Albany. When Charles Edward died, the Cardinal-Duke assumed the title of Henry IX., King of France and England.

The young Consalvi became a favorite with the princely protector who recognized in his young protege a gift of character, self-reliance and enthusiasm. During his term at Frascati, the future Secretary distinguished himself by his literary productions in prose and verse. In 1776, he entered the great ecclesiastical academy in Rome, where his abilities brought him to the notice of Pope Pius VI., who in 1783 raised him to the dignity of a cameriere sègreto, with the duty of providing for audiences at the Vatican. In 1784 he was made a domestic prelate. Promotions followed rapidly in the Curia; in a few months he became a member of the Governmental Congregation, and a secretary of the great hospital of San Michele. Still later he became a member of the pontifical segnatura. In 1786 he was offered the post of nuncio to Cologne, which he declined in favor of Mgr. Pacca. He next became a member of the Roman Rota, the tribunal of Justice. Again, he was made Assessor of the Department of War wherein he effected much good during the times of the French invasion of Italy.

CARDINAL CONSALVI.

It was shortly after the celebrated Treaty of Tollentino, that the unhappy affair of General Duphot occurred. On December 28, 1797, that officer, while commanding a mob of infuriated soldiery, was fatally shot by one of the Pontifical troops, and although no blame could be placed upon the government of the Pope, nevertheless the assassination was taken up as an excuse for hostility on the part of the French, who descended upon Rome, took possession of the city, and drove Pius VI. into that cruel exile which caused his death. Upon Consalvi especially, because of the position he then occupied in the Department of War, the full anger of the invaders fell. After an imprisonment in the Castel Sant Angels, he was subjected to many humiliating hardships. He was hurried off from Rome to Civita Vecchia with some Cardinals for the purpose of being transported to Cayenne. At Civita Vecchia, however, they were liberated with permission to go where they might choose, except to the Roman States. If found in that territory they were to be punished with death. Consalvi was again taken prisoner and confined in the Castel Sant Angelo. At this time it was determined to inflict a most trying humiliation upon him; he was to be led through the streets of Rome, mounted upon an ass, and beaten by ruffians hired for that purpose. Escaping this indignity through the scruples of a French official, he was sent to Naples. Thence, he was permitted to go to Venice, in which journey he met the Holy Father, Pius VI., then at Florence on the sorrowful way to death. It was while at Venice, that he learned of the death of the Sovereign Pontiff and remaining there took part in the Conclave that elected a successor.

PROPOSALS OF BONAPARTE.

In the meantime affairs in France were gradually assuming an aspect of peace and religious freedom. By the coup d'Etat of the 18 Brumaire. Bonaparte, returning from his Egyptian campaign, overturned the Directory, and effected a new government, December 15, 1799. The new power was to be presided over by a First Consul (Bonaparte) with two colleagues. Subordinate to these were the Senate of eighty members, the Tribunate of one hundred; and a Legislative Assembly of three hundred. The new government by proclaiming Bonaparte First Consul for life made him thereby a dictator, and placed practically the whole powers of the nation in his hands. It was with the glory of his triumphant elevation still fresh within his soul that the young conqueror set out early in the following year for the campaign of Italy. On June 14th, 1800, occurred the decisive victory of Marengo, whereby the French gained in a single day in Italy almost all that they had lost during the course of the last two years. The Austrians driven beyond the Mincio lost the Legations, and were finally forced to accept the Adige as the boundary of their possessions in Northern Italy.

In the midst of his glory the religious sentiment which had ever lain dormant in the heart of Napoleon came to the surface, inspiring him to a course of action which was to have immense importance in the future history of France. His intentions are best summed up in a letter which Cardinal Martiniana, Bishop of Vercelli, sent, at the request of Napoleon, to Pope Pius VII., just then entering the Eternal City after the Conclave of Venice. The contents of this letter are found in another letter sent by Cardinal Maury to Louis XVIII. to inform him of the turn events were then taking in the affairs of Rome and of France:

"The Consul Bonaparte paid a visit to Cardinal Martiniana (at Vercelli). He desired him to go to Rome and announce to the Pope that he wished to make him a present of 30,000,000 French Catholics; that he desired the return of religion to France; that the intruders of the first and second order (the constitutional bishops and priests) were nothing but a parcel of dishonored rascals of whom he was determined to rid himself; that the dioceses were formerly too numerous in France, and that their number ought to be restricted; that he desired to establish an entirely new clergy; that some of the old bishops were almost forgotten in their dioceses where they had hardly ever resided; that many of them had emigrated for no other purpose than to cabal, and that he did not care to have them return; that he would consider in their regard only their dismissal, although he was willing to grant them a proper salary; that, while waiting until he could donate funded property to the clergy, he would assure them of a very honest living, and that the poorest of the bishops should receive 15,000 livres a year; that the exercise of the Pope's spiritual jurisdiction should be carried on freely in France; that the Pope alone should institute the bishops, who should be nominated by whoever should administer the sovereign authority; finally, that he desired to re-establish the Pope in the possession of all his States."

This letter of Cardinal Martiniana was brought to Rome by Count Alciati, nephew of the Bishop of Vercelli, and was presented to the Holy Father shortly after his entrance into the Eternal City.

Very naturally the proposition of the First Consul met with hostility and protest from many quarters, notably from Louis XVIII., and from the old Catholic party under the leadership of the emigrated bishops. Every conceivable objection to such a treaty was placed before the Holy Father in the hope of influencing him to reject the overtures of the French ruler. He was reminded that the First Consul was the same Bonaparte who had imposed upon the Holy See the Treaty of Tollentino with its spoliation of Papal territory, its seizure of 30,000,000 francs, and other like exactions; it was the same Bonaparte who but a short time before had become a Mussulman in order to gain the good graces of the Eastern peoples. Moreover, what real favor might the Pope expect from that French government which he had ignored at the time of his election by neglecting to send to France the notification of that fact, especially when he had taken pains to recognize the rightful authority of Louis XVIII., by including him among the sovereigns to whom letters of greeting were sent upon his accession to the Papal throne? To the great mass of the French Catholic people the Church and the throne were inseparably bound together; they had existed together for fourteen centuries; they had fallen together amidst the horrors of the Revolution, and hence if one was again to rise to its ancient place of power and usefulness it should only be in conjunction with the restoration of the other. Added to this was the personal claim of Louis XVIII., expressed in very decided terms, whereby he declared himself as the only ruler of the French people whom the Holy See should recognize, as he was the only one the Pope had hitherto recognized; hence if the Concordat of 1516, contracted by Leo X. and Francis I., was to be abrogated and supplied by another, this work belonged by right to the successor of that king and not to a usurper. In presenting these and similar objections to the Pope the exiled king had a worthy representative in the person of Cardinal Maury, a man of singular eloquence and of great personal influence, all of which was brought to bear upon the mind of the Holy Father and the members of the Sacred College.

Pope Pius VII., however, regarded the project from a different standpoint. Much as he desired the restoration of the Bourbons and of Louis XVIII. in particular, of whom he had said to Cardinal Maury, "I would give my life to restore His Majesty to the throne," nevertheless the interests of religion appealed more strongly to his heart than the claims of any human affection. The letter of Cardinal Martiniana thus appeared providential in the midst of the difficulties that beset him, and from which neither Austria, Naples, Spain, or any other human power could liberate him. With every reason to expect hostile measures from Bonaparte, he could not but feel relieved by these expressions of cordial good feeling; nor could he help reflecting that this was the first time for many years since a French general had sent to Rome any other message than those of threats and exaction. The proposition of the First Consul opened up before him visions of future peace and prosperity for the universal Church, and seemed like a very answer from heaven to the prayers he had offered up ever since the day of his election. His gratification, therefore was expressed in the letter which he sent in return to Cardinal Martiniana.

"We can certainly receive no more agreeable news than that which is contained in your letter. The overtures it speaks of on the part of the First Consul cause us the greatest consolation, since they promise to bring back so many millions of souls to the fold of Christ, of whom we are the unworthy vicar. We shall regard it as our glory and an honor, and at the same time as something of benefit to the whole world, to behold the re-establishment in France of that most holy religion which has been the source of her happiness for so many centuries. You may say to the First Consul that we lend ourselves willingly to a negotiation whose object is so important.... Your presentation of his ideas gives us a well-founded hope that we shall be able to arrange affairs satisfactorily. However, your penetration must certainly perceive all the difficulties they present in themselves and in their application. But we confide in God's mercy and in His assistance in favor of the Church.... Observing that the First Consul has taken you into his confidence, we gladly accept you as a negotiator counting upon your zeal for the re-establishment of religion. With the object of hastening that result, and reflecting upon the extreme difficulty of explaining by letter affairs so intricate and so delicate, we have resolved to send you as soon as possible a person who has our confidence and who will be able to explain our intentions more easily, and to aid you in the negotiations...."

The person spoken of in this letter of Pope Pius VII., was Mgr. Spina, titular Archbishop of Corinth, a prelate well versed in the study of canon law, of a mild and pious disposition, one who had accompanied the late Pope during his exile and was with him in his last hours, and who had formed some little personal acquaintance with Bonaparte, as the latter was returning to Paris after his campaign in Egypt.

PRELIMINARIES OF THE CONCORDAT.

ARCHBISHOP SPINA.

Mgr. Spina set forth on the way to Vercelli on September 20th, 1800, and after many reverses, being at one time arrested at Modena, he arrived at his destination. It was the understanding of Pius VII. that the negotiations should be opened at Vercelli, or near at hand. The consternation of Mgr. Spina was therefore very great when, on reaching that city, he was confronted with the information that the First Consul had determined to transfer the place of meeting to Paris, a movement inspired no doubt by the twofold reason of making the whole proceeding seem to proceed from the petition of the Pope rather than from his own initiative, as also to prevent the appearance on the part of the French government of "going to Canossa." The Holy Father upon being informed of this new move of the First Consul yielded in the interests of peace, and directed Mgr. Spina to proceed as soon as convenient, in the company of Padre Caselli, General of the Servites, to Paris. The two negotiators arrived in that city on November 5th following.

CARDINAL CASELLI.

Of the two Papal representatives Spina alone was regarded as a negotiator, Father Caselli acting merely in the capacity of a companion, but having no voice in the deliberations. Even Spina himself was limited in his faculties, having no actual power of treating or of affixing his signature to the definitive documents. He was simply a delegate charged with exploring the ground, listening to the propositions, and of suggesting freely, but obliged to send his report to Rome ad audiendum et referendum.

The Papal commissioner was not long left in uncertainty as to the character and intentions of the French officials with whom he had to deal. Of these the most conspicuous were the First Consul himself, Talleyrand, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gregoire, the constitutional Bishop of Nancy, and the Abbe Bernier, the official negotiator in the deliberations.

The First Consul, then in his thirty-second year, was just beginning that role of supreme dictator which was to last to the end of his successful career. In the matter of religious convictions much has been said both in his favor as well as against, though the most probable opinions concede in him a certain undercurrent of religious belief, vague indeed, and clouded by the passion for glory and supremacy which possessed his soul. There was enough of Christian sentiment within him to make him esteem the faith of his youth as the most sacred thing on earth and worthy of his best efforts. These convictions, however, were weakened and at times entirely overcome by the overpowering allurements of a life wherein glory was offered at the price of honor, and power was purchased in the surrender of moral restraints. Hence, although it may be said that the ruling motive of Bonaparte in proposing the Concordat was political in its nature, it would be wrong to deny that a sense of religious propriety and affection for his old faith entered also into the influences which moved him. Young, popular, penetrating in his genius, and subtle in his political doctrines, he comprehended the necessity of procuring peace of conscience for the people, and saw clearly the immense benefit the State would derive from an understanding with the Church, as well as the personal advantage that must accrue to himself therefrom.

A few days after his arrival in Paris the Archbishop of Corinth was received by the Minister of Foreign Relations, who obtained an audience with Bonaparte almost immediately. "The welcome of the First Consul was, I must confess, a welcome full of enthusiasm. He spoke very respectfully of His Holiness and manifested towards him very favorable dispositions. He did not, however, conceal his displeasure that His Holiness had not officially notified him in his capacity of First Consul of the fact of his elevation to the Papacy, as he had the kings of England and Prussia and the emperor of Russia."

The audience was terminated by the order of conferring with the Minister of Foreign Affairs—and the party designated by him—upon all matters regarding the Concordat. It lasted fully half an hour, and was very satisfactory to the Papal Delegate.

Another figure destined to play an important part in the framing of the Concordat was the celebrated character of the Revolution, Charles Maurice Talleyrand, the former Bishop of Autun, an apostate who had added to his iniquities the crime of marrying a divorced Protestant. The whole work of this strange personage consisted in placing obstacles to the completion of an understanding between the French government and the Holy See. In fact, it was only during his absence from Paris, while he was taking the waters of a bath, that the negotiators could finally place their signatures to the definitive document. Gregoire, the constitutional Bishop of Nancy, performed with Talleyrand, the office of instructor in ecclesiastical matters to the First Consul. A Gallican of Gallicans, an intense hater of the old regime, jansenistic and puritanical in his perverted piety, and obstinate in his adhesion to the principles of the Revolution, neither he nor the Minister of Foreign Affairs was a worthy interpreter of the mind and doctrines of the Church, especially in an affair of such great importance. It is, no doubt, due to the influence of these two ambitious men that the First Consul showed himself at times, during the discussions, somewhat hostile to the interests of the Church, and disposed to throw over the whole tenor of the Concordat the restrictions of pure Gallicanism.

THE ABBE BERNIER.

The Abbe Bernier, doctor in theology, and former curé of St. Laud of Angers, was the most intimate of all the officials concerned in the work of the Concordat. A man of retired and mysterious ways, living alone in the third story of a house in a side street of the city, he carried into the discussions a mind fully attuned to the demands of Bonaparte, and directed by the instructions Of Talleyrand. He was far from being a Revolutionist, having played an important part in the Royalist army during the war of the Vendee, an episode in his life which was never fully forgiven by Bonaparte; yet he could be relied upon by his master as one who would grant to the Pope the least possible concessions, while exacting from the Holy See as much as one could under the circumstances.

Against these minds, all astute and all varying in their religious and political doctrines, Mgr. Spina found himself practically alone. After many discussions, beginning at the first week of November, 1800, and lasting for six months,—during which time many drafts of the Concordat had been drawn up only to meet with rejection,—the deliberations seemed nearing their close by the completion of the fourth draft. When this document was at length finished the Papal negotiator received peremptory orders from Talleyrand to at once affix his signature, in spite of the fact that it contained articles which could not meet with the Papal approval. Mgr. Spina protested in vain that he had no faculties for signing, and begged a delay sufficient for sending the document to Rome for examination. The Minister of Foreign Affairs continued obdurate until the Papal Delegate appealed to the First Consul. The latter granted the delay, but required that the messenger chosen for the journey should bear personal instructions from him. When these instructions were opened at Rome, March 10, 1801, they were found to contain an entirely new draft of the Concordat drawn up by the First Consul himself, thus setting aside definitely that fourth form for the signing of which Talleyrand had betrayed so much animosity.

While preparing the text of this document the First Consul had been casting his eyes around to discover some one capable of representing him at Rome in the discussions which must inevitably follow the reception of the new Concordat. An aged Breton, loyal to his country, moderate and full of tact, who had already performed some important missions in Italy—such was M. Cacault, the person chosen by Bonaparte for this purpose. He was already in his sixtieth year, and notable as a member of the Corps Legislatif, a man in whom the First Consul could place the utmost confidence. When departing for Rome, during the last week of March, upon asking of Bonaparte how he should treat the Pope, the General answered: "Treat him as if he had two hundred thousand men." Cacault arrived in Rome on April 8th, and entered at once upon his duties as Minister Plenipotentiary of the French government at the Court of the Holy See.

---

The Holy Father conceived fully the importance of these new moves of the First Consul, and began at once to give to them the attention they merited. The draft of the Concordat was first submitted to the scrutiny of three cardinals—Antonelli, Carandini and Gerdil—who were charged with the duty of studying the text and proposing such additions or changes as they might deem necessary. Their work was then submitted to a commission of twelve cardinals under the presidency of the Pope, and entitled the Particular Congregation. These twelve ecclesiastical princes had all been victims of the Revolution, suffering especially in 1798 all the evils of ruin, exile and imprisonment. It can thus be easily conceived that their sentiments towards Bonaparte and the Republic were tinged with something of acerbity, which, however, vanished under the claims of justice and that expediency which the unhappy conditions of the Church demanded. To ensure perfect immunity from all external influences, the members of the Commission were at once subjected to the oath of secrecy of the Holy Office. "The slightest revelation would produce most disastrous consequences. Each cardinal must study the questions by himself without consulting either theologian or secretary. Each should cast a vote written by his own hand and should exercise the greatest care that no familiar or acquaintance should either by day or by night, obtain the least information upon this affair, which is certainly one of the gravest with which Holy See has ever had to treat." (Consalvi to the Cardinals of the Commission.)

In spite of the fact that the First Consul desired the prompt signing of his document, and was already planning to celebrate its completion during the same ceremonies which would accompany the formal ratification of the peace of Austria, nevertheless the work of the cardinals dragged out for nearly two months. In Paris the delay was the cause of excitement and anger. Mgr. Spina was harassed with questions and reproaches; Bernier was loud in his complaints; while Talleyrand in a fit of jealousy declared that the fault was Cacault's who thus hoped to draw to himself the glory of concluding the Concordat. The impatience of Bonaparte was expressed in the commands which he gave to Spina on the twelfth of May, while waiting for the advent of the Papal messenger bearing the results of the cardinals' deliberations:

"Rome wishes to draw out this affair as long as possible in the hope of some political change which might favor her pretensions. I love and esteem the Pope very much, but I have little confidence in the cardinals, and in particular Cardinal Consalvi, who has broken his word with me, and is an enemy of France. He promised that the courier would arrive by the end of April; here it is the twelfth of May and he has not appeared; perhaps he has not even left Rome. More than that, my project of the Concordat has been changed and I shall not consent to that. Cacault writes that the Pope is unwilling to admit the article concerning the bishops and wishes me to send him the list of those whom I rejected, together with the reasons for their exclusion. Now, I declare that I do not want any of the former bishops, and I shall not yield upon that point. Why does the Court of Rome allow itself to be influenced by these non-Catholic powers? It confers with Russia, with Prussia, with England. Do the affairs of the Catholic world concern heretics and schismatics? It is I alone and the King of Spain who have the right to enter into such matters. You have just wounded Spain, and committed an awkward mistake in re-establishing the Jesuits at the request of the Tzar Paul I. Take care; it may cost you dearly to put yourself thus under the protection of Russia. For doing that the King of Sardinia has just lost Piedmont.

"It is with me that you should arrange matters; it is in me that you should place your confidence; it is I alone who can save you. You demand the restoration of the Legations? You wish to be rid of the troops? Everything will depend upon the answer you make to my demands, especially with regard to the bishops. I was born a Catholic, I wish to live and die a Catholic, and I have nothing more at heart than the re-establishment of the Catholic worship, but the Pope is acting in a way that serves me as a temptation to become a Lutheran or Calvinist, and to draw all France along with me. Let him change his behavior and listen to me. If not, I shall establish a religion, I shall give the people a worship with bells and processions, I shall ignore the Holy Father, he shall no longer exist for me. Send a messenger this very day to Rome to tell him that."

On the following day Spina, Talleyrand, and Bernier, each sent a letter to Rome, with accounts of the First Consul's anger. The fears of the Holy Father at the news thus received were still further intensified by the orders contained in a letter written by Talleyrand to Cacault and dated the nineteenth of May:

... "I have formal orders from the First Consul to inform you that your first move in regard to the Holy See must be to demand of the Pope, within the term of five days, a definitive determination in regard to the project of the convention and the Bull in which the convention is to be inserted, which have been proposed to him for adoption. If in the respite which you are charged to offer, the two projects are adopted without any modification the two States bound together by the ties of peaceful relations whose importance and necessity the Holy See ought to perceive now more than ever.... If changes are proposed to you, and the granted time expires, you will announce to the Holy See that your presence in Rome having become useless for the object of your mission you see yourself obliged with regret to betake yourself to your general-in-chief, and you will leave at once for Florence."

CACAULT.

M. Cacault made haste to transmit this ultimatum to the Holy Father, who received it with mingled feelings of astonishment and anxiety. Though fully determined never to yield upon points that concerned the dogmatic teachings of the Church, nevertheless he was careful not to act without first consulting his advisors in the Sacred College—the twelve cardinals of the Particular Congregation. Their sentiments agreed fully with his own. They thought it necessary for M. Cacault to withdraw from his diplomatic post, but the principle involved was altogether too important to permit of mere temporal considerations. The turn taken by events brought back to the mind of the Pope the unhappy episodes of 1798, the exile and death of Pius VI., the certainty of eventual schism in the Church not only in France but throughout Europe. There was apparently much to be gained by a passive yielding to the demands of the First Consul; but the loss on the other hand would prove incalculable, besides meaning eventual ruin to the whole Church. It was not surprising therefore that after considering the matter from every standpoint the Pope finally intimated to the French minister his unalterable resolution of maintaining the position he had taken at any cost.

It was in this junction that the genius of M. Cacault was called into play. Fully acquainted with the temperament and disposition of Bonaparte he determined upon a measure that at first seemed foolhardy, but which upon mature reflection commended itself to the Roman Court. He would carry out the instructions of the First Consul to the letter, but at the same time he would so arrange matters that the affair in question should be settled to the satisfaction of every one concerned. His plan, in short, was to induce Cardinal Consalvi, the Papal Secretary of State, to proceed at once to Paris, and there personally conduct the discussions, feeling certain that the diplomatic skill of the young statesman could effect the result when all other means would be destined to failure.

DIPLOMACY OF CARDINAL CONSALVI.

Full of this idea the French minister approached the Cardinal, and urged upon him the duty of hastening at once to Paris, to superintend personally the disentangling of the situation.

"The First Consul does not know you," he said, "he knows still less your talents, and your tact, your persuasiveness, your coquetry, your desire to bring this affair to completion; go to Paris.... Go tomorrow, you will please him, you will both understand one another; let him see that a cardinal can be a man of spirit, you are the one to conclude the Concordat with him. If you do not go to Paris I shall be obliged to break with you—remember there are ministers there who persuaded the Directory to transport Pius VI. to Cayenne. There are counsellors of state who are pleading against you, and generals who sneer and shrug their shoulders. If I break with you, Murat, a second Berthier, will march on Rome."

The words of M. Cacault made a deep impression upon the Cardinal, and together the French minister and the Secretary of State went to lay the plan before the Holy Father. The latter, desolated by the thought of losing if only for a time his beloved Secretary, yielded only after the necessity of the move had been demonstrated and had received the approval of the Sacred College.

On June 6th, the day following the expiration of the time allotted by Bonaparte, Cardinal Consalvi departed from Rome, seated in the same carriage with Cacault, who, in accordance with his instructions, was taking the way to Florence. In the latter city the two diplomats separated, the former continuing his journey to Paris, where he arrived on June 20th, and took up his lodgings at the Hotel de Rome, in company with Mgr. Spina. The Cardinal writes in his Memoires:

"My first thought on the following morning was to inform General Bonaparte of my arrival and to learn at what hour I might have the honor of seeing him. I asked at the same time in what costume he wished me to present myself. This question was necessary, since at that time the ecclesiastical dress was no longer in use in Paris, or in the whole of France. The priests were clothed as laymen; the churches consecrated to God were now dedicated to Friendship, to Abundance, to Hymen, to Commerce, to Liberty, to Equality, Fraternity, and to other divinities of the democratic reason. Every one was entitled citizen; I was so addressed myself during my journey, even though covered with the insignia of the cardinalate. I would not discard that garb for a single day, though I thereby gave proof rather of courage than of prudence.

"The Abbe Bernier returned immediately with the information that the First Consul would receive me at two o'clock that afternoon, and that, as to the costume I was to appear as a cardinal as far as was possible."

At the stated hour Consalvi appeared at the palace.

"I entered," he said, "a salon in which I perceived only one solitary individual who advanced toward me, saluted me in silence, and then striding on before introduced me into a neighboring hall. I did not then know who this personage might be, but I learned later that it was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. de Talleyrand, a name too well-known in the annals of the Revolution to need any additional description from me. I imagined he was about to lead me to the private cabinet of the First Consul and I was congratulating myself in the hope of being alone with him. But what was my surprise when, on opening that last door, I saw before me in a vast hall a multitude of persons disposed as if for a scene in a drama. In the centre of the hall were symmetrically arranged the various corps of the state government (which were, as I afterwards learned, the Senate, the Tribunate, the Corps Legislatif, and the High Courts of the Magistrature) and, at the sides, generals, officers of all degrees, ministers, grand state functionaries, and before all others, detached and isolated, three persons whom I learned later were the three consuls of the Republic.

"The central figure came forward a few steps toward me, and it was only by conjecture that I divined that it was Bonaparte, a conjecture that was confirmed by the attitude of Talleyrand, who still kept company with me and presented me to him. I was about to utter some words of compliment, and to speak of my journey; I had scarcely approached him than he at once opened up the conversation, and said curtly: 'I know the object of your journey to France. I want the conferences to be opened immediately. I give you five days, and I warn you that if, at the expiration of the fifth day, the negotiations are not terminated, you will return to Rome, while as to myself, I have already determined on what I shall do in such a hypothesis.'"

The calm dignity of the Cardinal triumphed over the haughty bearing of the Consul who permitted himself to yield somewhat. The audience lasted an hour and a half, and left the Roman prelate quite satisfied that he might employ as much time as the proper discussion of the affair should demand.

It was the 13th of July before the negotiators at last came to a definite agreement. The Concordat had reached that stage in the discussions when it could at length receive the signatures of the various officials interested. The night of the 13th was fixed as the date when that happy consummation was to be effected, and it was settled that all the negotiators were to meet for that purpose at 8 P. M., at the house of Joseph Bonaparte, brother of the first Consul.

So certain were the officials of the Government that the affair was now concluded, that the announcement of the fact appeared in the Moniteur of the day, in an article concluding with the words: "Cardinal Consalvi has succeeded in the object which brought him to Paris." Moreover, the First Consul had confided to his intimates that on the following day, July 14th, the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille, the formal announcement of the signing of the Concordat would be made at a grand banquet to be held at the Tuileries, at which three hundred or more guests would be present, including the six signers.

In the meantime the party of opposition to the Concordat had not been idle. Under the inspiration of Talleyrand a spurious imitation of the document agreed upon was gotten up, and after a note brought by d'Hauterive—one of the creatures of the Minister of Foreign Affairs—to the First Consul, was substituted for the real paper, under the impression that Consalvi would be led to sign it in the haste required for the accomplishment of the other consequent events. The Cardinal goes on to relate his discovery of this deception:

"Seated around the table," (in the house of Joseph Bonaparte) "a few moments were devoted to the question as to who should subscribe first, as it seemed that the honor belonged to him (Joseph) as the brother of the Chief of the Government. In the mildest manner, yet with all the firmness required by the occasion, I remarked that my quality of Cardinal and representative of the Pope would not permit me to take second place among the signers; I observed, moreover, that under the old Government of France, as in all such cases, the cardinals had undisputed precedence, and that I could not yield in a point which did not concern me personally but the dignity with which I was vested. I must in justice admit that, after some difficulty, he yielded with good grace, and agreed that I should sign first, while he should follow in the second place, then the Prelate Spina, followed in order by the Counsellor Cretet, Padre Caselli, and finally the Abbe Bernier.

"Thereupon we immediately prepared for the work in hand, and I took up the pen to affix my signature. But what was my surprise when I saw the Abbe Bernier presenting me the copy which he had unrolled, in order that I should begin with that rather than with my own, and after glancing over it to assure myself that it was correct, I perceived that the Concordat which I was about to sign was not the one upon which not only the negotiators, but the First Consul also, had agreed, but one entirely different. The change in the first line caused me to examine with greater diligence the remainder of the document, and I discovered that the present copy not only contained the very same draft which the Pope had refused to admit without proper corrections, and which had given cause for the recall of the French envoy through the refusal of the Pope, but it changed the same in many points, having inserted many things which had already been rejected before that draft was sent to Rome.

"A proceeding of such a nature, incredible though a fact, and which I will not permit myself to characterize—the thing speaks for itself—paralyzed, so to speak, my hand before it could sign. I expressed my surprise, and declared decisively that I could not sign that document at any price. The brother of the First Consul seemed no less astonished at what he heard, and declared that he could not be persuaded of what I said, since the First Consul had told him that everything was agreed and that nothing remained to be done except to sign."

The firm stand taken by Cardinal Consalvi compelled the six commissioners to undertake again a revision of the document in order to be able to please if possible the First Consul, and thus end the affair before the banquet of the following day. It was noon of the fourteenth before they had come to a satisfactory agreement. The new copy was then taken by Joseph Bonaparte who brought it to his brother, the First Consul.

"He returned in less than an hour revealing in his countenance the anguish of his mind. He informed us that the French Consul was seized with a fit of great fury at the news of what had happened; that in the impetuosity of his anger, he had torn into a hundred pieces the draft of the Concordat arranged by us; and that finally yielding to his prayers, his solicitation, his reflections and his reason, he had promised, although with unspeakable repugnance, to accept all the articles agreed upon but as to one, which we had left in suspense, he was as inflexible as irritated, charging me in conclusion, that he looked for that article just as it was written in the copy brought by Abbe Bernier, and that I had only one of two things to do, either to admit that article as it was and sign the Concordat, or to break definitely the whole negotiation; that he was absolutely determined to announce at the banquet of that day either the signing or the rupture of the affair."

It was two o'clock in the afternoon when Joseph Bonaparte brought this strange message. For two hours more this same messenger, aided by Cretet and Bernier, endeavored to bend the unflinching will of Consalvi, but to no purpose. He comprehended fully the great temporal evils that must follow a rupture with France, the dangers to the peace and liberty of the Pope and the welfare of the Church; but he knew at the same time that his action would be precisely in accordance with the wishes of the Holy Father, and therefore a matter of sacred duty. The discussion remained in the same condition when at four o'clock the six commissioners parted to prepare themselves for the banquet which was to begin at five. That this occasion promised to be one of violent anger on the part of Bonaparte was the thought of Consalvi as he entered the banquet hall of the Tuileries. The scene is described dramatically in his own words:

"Scarcely had we entered the hall in which the First Consul was waiting, and which was thronged with magistrates, officers, grandees of State, ambassadors, and most illustrious foreigners,—guests at the banquet,—than he gave us a welcome easy to imagine, he being already cognizant of the rupture. He had hardly seen me than, with inflamed countenance, and in a loud voice, he said: 'So, Monsieur Cardinal, you wish to break the negotiations? Very well. I have no need of Rome. I will act for myself. I have no need of the Pope. If Henry VIII. who had not the twentieth part of my power knew how to change the religion of his country successfully, much more do I know how, and am able to do so. And when I change religion in France, I shall change it in nearly all of Europe wheresoever the influence of my power extends. Rome will recognize the losses she must suffer, and she will bewail them when it is too late. You are going, well, that is the best you can do. You want a rupture, and let it be so, since you wish it.'

"To these words uttered in public in a quick, loud tone of voice, I answered that I could not overstep my powers, nor agree on points contrary to the principles professed by the Holy See. 'In things ecclesiastical,' I added, 'one cannot do all that one can in temporal affairs in certain extreme cases. Notwithstanding that, it did not seem to me possible to say that the rupture was sought for on the part of the Pope, since we were agreed upon all the articles, holding only one in reserve, in regard to which I have proposed to consult the Pope himself, even though his own (the French) commissioners had dissented.' He (the Consul) interrupted me to say that he wished to leave nothing imperfect, and that he desired to conclude all or nothing. T answered that I had not the right to accept the article in question, as long as it remained precisely as he had proposed it, and without any modification. He replied angrily that he wanted it just as it was, without one syllable more or less. I answered that in that case I should never sign it, because I could not at any cost. He repeated: 'It is precisely for that reason that I say that you want a rupture, and that I consider the affair at an end, and that Rome will feel and weep over this rupture with tears of blood.'"

After more words uttered in a like strain, the guests proceeded to the banquet which was of short duration and clouded by the irritable temper of the First Consul. After it was ended, however, a better spirit entered into Bonaparte, and yielding to the solicitations of the Count de Cobentzel, the peacemaker of the day, he agreed that the commissioners might come together again for the last time on the following day.

"Let them see if they cannot possibly arrange matters, but if they separate without coming to a conclusion, the rupture will be regarded as definitive, and the Cardinal may leave. I declare also that I want this article to remain absolutely as it is, and that I shall admit of no change."

And so saying he turned upon his heel.

The commissioners met accordingly on the following day at the house of Joseph Bonaparte, and after twelve hours of discussion finally came to an agreement of such a nature that the honor of the Holy See would be guaranteed thereby, while at the same time the obstinacy of the First Consul would suffer no perceptible wounding. It was at midnight when the affair was at last pronounced completed, and the commissioners at once affixed their signatures to the document.

"The Concordat was signed at two o'clock in the morning in the house which I occupied in the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honore. At the same hour I became the father of a third child whose birth was saluted by the plenipotentiaries of the two great powers, and his prosperity predicted by the envoys of the Vicar of Christ."[1]

It was midnight instead of two o'clock A. M.

TEXT OF THE CONCORDAT.

The Concordat, thus signed on July 15th, 1801, was conceived in the following terms:

Convention between His Holiness Pius VII., and the French Government.

The Government of the Republic recognizes that the Catholic Apostolic Roman religion is the religion of the great majority of the French citizens.

His Holiness also recognizes that this same religion has derived, and at this moment expects anew, the greatest good and glory from the establishment of Catholic worship in France, and the especial profession thereof made by the Consuls of the republic.

Consequently, after the mutual recognition, both for the good of religion and the maintenance of internal tranquility, they have agreed upon the following:

Article I.

The Catholic Apostolic Roman religion shall be freely exercised in France. Its worship shall be public, conforming to the regulations of internal administration which the Government shall deem necessary for the public tranquility.

Article II.

A new circumscription of the French diocese shall be made by the Holy See in concert with the Government.

Article III.

His Holiness will declare to the incumbents of the French Sees, that it expects from them, with a firm confidence, for the sake of peace and unity, sacrifices of every kind, even to the resignation of their Sees.

If, after this exhortation they refuse this sacrifice, commanded by the well-being of the Church (a refusal nevertheless which His Holiness does not expect), the dioceses of the new circumscription shall be provided with new bishops in the following manner:

Article IV.

The First Consul of the Republic will, within three months after the publication of His Holiness' bull, nominate to the archbishoprics and bishoprics of the new circumscription. His Holiness will confer canonical institution according to the forms established in regard to France, before the change of Government.

Article V.

The nominations to Sees, hereafter to fall vacant, shall also be made by the First Consul, and canonical institution will be given by the Holy See, in conformity with the preceding article.

Article VI.

The bishops, before entering on their functions, shall take directly in the hands of the First Consul, the oath of fidelity, which was in use before the change of Government, expressed in the following terms:

"I swear and promise to God, on His holy Gospels, to observe obedience and fidelity to the Government established by the constitution of the French Republic. I also promise to have no understanding with, assist in no council, entertain no league, either within or without, which shall be contrary to the public tranquility; and if in my diocese or elsewhere I learn that anything is plotted to the prejudice of the State, I will impart it to the Government."

Article VII.

Ecclesiastics of the second order shall take the same oath, in the hands of the civil authorities named by the Government.

Article VIII.

The following form of prayer shall be recited at the end of the Divine Office, in all the Catholic Churches of France: Domine, salvam fac Rempublicam. Domine, salvos fac Consules.

Article IX.

The bishops shall make a new circumscription of the parishes in their dioceses, which shall be of no effect until approved by the Government.

Article X.

The bishops shall appoint to the parishes. Their choice shall fall only on persons acceptable to the Government.

Article XI.

Bishops may have a chapter in their Cathedral, and a seminary for their diocese, without any obligation on the part of the Government to endow them.

Article XII.

All the metropolitan churches, cathedrals, parishes, and others not alienated, necessary for worship, shall be put at the disposal of the bishops.

Article XIII.

His Holiness, for the sake of peace and the happy restoration of the Catholic religion, declares that neither he nor his successors will disquiet in any manner the holders of alienated ecclesiastical property, and that, consequently, the right to said property, with the rights and revenues attached thereto, shall remain incommutable in their hands or those of their representatives.

Article XIV.

The Government will secure a suitable salary to the bishops, and to parish priests whose dioceses and parishes are comprised in the new circumscription.

Article XV.

The Government will also take measures to enable French Catholics, when so disposed, to create foundations in favor of churches.

Article XVI.

His Holiness recognizes, in the First Consul of the French Republic, the same rights and prerogatives enjoyed at Rome by the former Government.

Article XVII.

It is agreed between the contracting parties that in case any successor of the present First Consul should not be a Catholic, the rights and prerogatives mentioned in the preceding article, and the nominations to Sees, shall be regulated, so far as he is concerned, by a new convention.

The ratifications to be exchanged at Paris within forty days.

Done at Paris, 26th Messidor, year IX. of the French Republic, July 15th, 1801.

H. CARDINAL CONSALVI,
J. BONAPARTE,
J. ARCHEVEQUE de CORINTHE,
FR. CHARLES CASELLI,
CRETET,
BERNIER.

Upon its appearance, the new treaty was naturally subjected to criticism, adverse and favorable. That it meant a decided victory for the Church over her old enemies was admitted on all sides, and all hostility to its prescriptions could be reduced to the murmurings of the Royalists, the émigrés, the Gallicans, the constitutionals and the various revolutionary parties. By the great mass of the Catholic people it was hailed as a rainbow of promise after the desolating storms of the past ten years.

"According to its first article the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion was to be exercised freely in France; the Catholic Church was therefore to be free in her organization, free in her preaching and teaching, free in her discipline, in her ministers, in her right of acquiring such property as would be necessary for the accomplishing of her mission. She is no longer as under the old regime, intimately allied with the State; she is no longer the Church of the State; the separation of the temporal and the spiritual has been effected.... But if in return one considers the words of the text according to their real value, she is entirely free; she need no longer fear trespassing from outside nor a supervision that tends only to hinder her action; nor those thousand and one interferences which were formerly perpetrated by Gallicanism."

The article continues: "Its worship shall be public"—words which naturally signify the exercise of religious ceremonies not merely within the walls of the church, but exteriorly also, as in public processions, carrying the Blessed Viaticum to the sick, and such like. Nor is it strange that these practices should be permitted in a land where the Catholic faith is the religion of the great majority of the people, when in Protestant countries they are carried out solemnly and amid the veneration of all.

The addition of the words—"in conforming to the regulations of internal administration (reglements de police) which the Government shall deem necessary for the public tranquility"—was one of the causes of the delay in framing the Concordat; it was the clause against which the First Consul declaimed so violently on the famous afternoon of July 14th, and it has served ever since as the foundation of an anti-liberal jurisprudence.

"In practice it is the mayor who in each commune is charged with maintaining public order and tranquility, and, by the same title, whenever a mayor considers that a procession or any other religious manifestation can occasion trouble and disorder upon the public streets, he has the right to interdict it. One must confess that in a country like ours where the idea of liberty is so limited, it is sometimes a means for the protection of the clergy and faithful against injuries and outrages. But very often mayors have interdicted, and permanently, only Catholic processions, while they permit freethinkers to pass through the streets in parades that are dangerous to the public. If a mayor acts with such partiality, if he cannot support his interdiction with some serious reason—like that municipal official who would interdict a procession because the white veils of the young girls might frighten horses—if a mayor, in a word, acts by party spirit, and not in view of the public tranquility, he violates the Concordat. True liberty of conscience does not take account of the sentimental susceptibilities of occasional nervous individuals, nor would it impose upon anyone the obligation of dissimulating their religious professions or philosophical opinions; on the contrary it imposes on men the obligation of tolerating each other reciprocally in the peaceful manifestation of their beliefs. Hence, independently of the Concordat, is not such liberty of conscience demanded for all citizens by the Declaration of the Rights of Man?" (Croizil.)

The articles relating to the bishops excited the greatest amount of dissatisfaction in many quarters. It meant the realization of that idea which Bonaparte had expressed to Cardinal Martiniana in the year preceding—the utter abolition of the old hierarchy—and the substitution of one entirely new and conformable to the order of things about to be established. Before the Revolution there were in France 136 Episcopal Sees. In the scheme of Bonaparte these were to be reduced to fifty only, of which ten were to be metropolitan, although later, in 1801, he was pleased to add ten other sees to the number. Commenting upon this reduction, Cardinal Mathieu observes:

"Sixty-six cities were thus subjected to a moral and material decline from which they have never since rallied. Indeed, each of these suppressed Sees was illustrated with memorials of apostleship and holiness, with monuments, with religious establishments of every kind which gave to the episcopal cities an importance superior to that of their population and made them so many interesting little capitals, wherein were often hidden men of great merit. The dignitaries of the secular and regular clergy, some families of impoverished gentlemen or well-to-do bourgeois and professional people, maintained therein an amiable society which kept up in the most secluded provinces the best traditions of the old regime—courtesy, a taste for literature and charity for the poor. All these little centres of intellectual and moral life were blotted out and the Concordat thus only sanctioned the destruction effected by the Revolution."

It was mainly because of reflections like these that the old émigré bishops received the news of these articles with so sad a grace.

The articles which treat of ecclesiastical property and the salaries of the clergy will prove of interest especially at the present time, when in the Law of Separation they have been so badly misinterpreted. Article XII. reveals the fact that the Church was placed in absolute possession of her property. The term "shall be placed at the disposition of the bishops" signifies the same thing that it did when in 1789 the property of the Church was confiscated by the then Government and, to use the terms of that law, mise a la disposition de la nation, placed at the disposition of the nation. There can be little doubt as to how those words were understood in 1789, for the nation, acting upon the law, immediately proceeded to the sale of all ecclesiastical property. The words, therefore, signified that the nation was placed in full and absolute possession of such property, and the precedent must in all honor apply equally when the terms are used in favor of the Church. To say, therefore, that the article gave to the bishops the mere use ad revocationem of such property is only to betray a desire to excuse a robbery under the pretext of a misunderstanding. The Concordat thus acknowledged the Church's absolute possession of her churches and other religious establishments, a possession which will always remain hers rightfully, and which she shall defend in her own way against any attempt at alienation.

In the articles XIII. and XIV. the French Government acknowledges that even the alienated property, i. e., the churches, etc.—which after the confiscation of 1789 were sold, were even in 1801 the rightful property of the Church; though, nevertheless, the Church, for the sake of peace, therein agrees to waive her right. In so doing, however, she requires as a condition that the State shall compensate her for the same. This compensation is expressed in article XIV., wherein it is declared that the State shall assure a suitable salary to the clergy. In accordance with this disposition it follows that whenever—as at present—the Concordat should be abolished the Church should revert to her natural rights the compensation for alienated property being discontinued, such property or its value should be restored to the Church. In this matter the present Government of France has shown itself not merely unfair but actuated also by a spirit of robbery.

The Concordat finished, Cardinal Consalvi began his preparations for returning to Rome. He arrived in the Eternal City on August 6th. He had, however, been preceded by a messenger bearing the precious document, who arrived at the Vatican on July 25th. The instrument was immediately subjected to the examination of a commission of cardinals, and only after long and heated discussions was it finally accepted by the Holy See. It was signed by the Pope on August 15th, 1801.

In accordance with the prescriptions of the Concordat the Holy Father began at once the execution of that article which required the resignation of the various sees by their actual or rightful incumbents. The brief dispatched by the Pope to all the bishops of France, whether resident in that country or living in foreign lands, necessitated that an answer be received within ten days. Fourteen prelates residing in London declared, on September 27th, that they could not consent for the present to his demands, at least without having been heard. Twenty-six bishops residing in Germany answered in the same terms on October 28th. On January 21st the bishops who had taken refuge in England addressed to the Holy Father a new refusal protesting "against the attempts which had been made or which might be made against the rights of the Most Christian King, their Sovereign Lord, rights which the laws of the Church commanded the first among the Pontiffs to respect religiously, and the defence of which was for the French bishops a duty rendered sacred by their oaths of fidelity from which no power could release them, and whose violation would be a criminal act." Some hesitation was likewise manifested by the constitutional bishops resident in France, a hesitation, however, which under the tactful management of Cardinal Caprara, the new Legate a Latere at Paris, was finally overcome.

The Holy Father, after waiting patiently for several months for a favorable answer to his demands, resolved at length to act notwithstanding all protestations. In the Bull, Qui Christi Domini, he declared that he derogated to the consent of the bishops who had refused to sign their resignation, he interdicted in them every act of jurisdiction, he abolished the old dioceses existing in France, and erected sixty new sees in their place.

In the meanwhile the Concordat had been signed by Bonaparte, on September 10th, 1801. It yet, however, required the ratification of the governmental bodies before becoming law. Though signed on July 15th, 1801, it was not until April of the following year that this desired consummation was effected. It was finally ratified on April 8th, by the Corps Legislatif. The reason for the delay became apparent upon this occasion, for then there appeared in conjunction with the Concordat, and as if forming a part of it, a series of laws entitled Organic Articles, which had been elaborated during those nine months without the knowledge of the Pope, just as their publication was now effected without his cognizance. The purport of these latter articles was to destroy or contradict in great part the concessions granted by the Concordat. Rome has never ceased to protest against them, and to demand their abrogation or modification. In 1804 she seemed to have succeeded, deceived by the promises of Napoleon at a moment when he desired the aid of the Holy Father at the ceremonial of his coronation; in 1817, when a new Concordat was attempted, the partial abrogation of these Articles was one of the stipulations; their suppression was again proposed in 1848; and again in 1853. They remained, however, in spite of every effort, a constant obstacle to the fulfilment of the concessions of the Concordat and a source of perpetual trouble to the Church in France.

TEXT OF THE ORGANIC ARTICLES.

Organic Articles of the Convention of the 26 Messidor, Year IX.

Article 1. No bull, brief, rescript, decree, mandate, provision, signature serving for provision, nor other documents expedited by the Court of Rome, even though they concern private individuals can be received, printed, or otherwise put in force without the authorization of the Government.

Article 2. No individual styling himself a nuncio, legate, vicar, or commissary Apostolic, or who makes use of any other determining title can, without the same authorization, exercise upon French soil, or elsewhere, any function relative to the affairs of the Gallican church.

Article 3. The decrees of the foreign synods, even those of the general councils, cannot be published in France before the Government has examined their form, their conformity with the laws, rights and privileges of the French Republic, and all that which in their publication could alter or interfere with the public tranquility.

Article 4. No council, national or metropolitan, no diocesan synod, no deliberative assembly, shall be held without the express permission of the Government.

Article 5. All ecclesiastical functions shall be gratuitous, except the offerings which will be authorized and fixed by the regulations.

Article 6. Recourse to the Council of State shall be had in every case of abuse on the part of superiors and other ecclesiastical persons.

The cases of abuse are as follows: Usurpation or excess of power, contravention of the laws and regulations of the Republic; violation of the rules which are consecrated by the Canons received in France; any attack on the liberties, privileges, and customs of the French church; and every undertaking or proceeding which, in the exercise of worship, might compromise the honor of citizens, trouble their consciences unnecessarily, or which might degenerate into a source of oppression or injury to them, or become a public scandal.

Article 7. Recourse to the Council of States shall also be permitted whenever an attack is made upon the public exercise of worship, and the liberty which the laws and regulations guarantee to its ministers.

Article 8. This recourse is the privilege of all persons interested. In default of a particular complaint, this duty will devolve upon the prefects. Public functionaries, ecclesiastics or other persons who wish to make use of this appeal, will address a memorial, detailed and signed, to the counsellor of State charged with all matters concerning religion, whose duty it will be to obtain, in the shortest time possible, all proper information, and upon his report the affair will be taken up and finished in the administrative form, or sent, as the case may demand, to the competent authorities.

Article 11. The archbishops and bishops may, with the authorization of the Government, establish in their dioceses cathedral chapters and seminaries. All other ecclesiastical establishments are suppressed.

Article 12. Bishops shall be permitted to add to their names the title of Citizen or that of Monsieur. All other qualifications are interdicted.

Article 16. No one may be nominated to bishopric who has not attained the age of thirty years, or who is not of French origin.

Article 18. The priest nominated by the First Consul shall make haste to obtain institution from the Pope.

He cannot exercise any function before the bull containing such institution has received the seal of the Government, and before he has taken personally the oath prescribed by the convention made between the French Government and the Holy See. This oath shall be taken before the First Consul: a formal attestation of the same shall be drawn up by the Secretary of State.

Article 19. The bishops shall name and install the pastors; nevertheless they shall not publish their nomination nor give canonical institution until that nomination has been approved by the First Consul.

Article 23. The bishops shall be charged with the organization of their seminaries, and the regulation of that organization shall be submitted to the approbation of the First Consul.

Article 24. Those who shall be chosen to teach in the seminaries shall subscribe to the declaration made by the clergy of France in 1682 and published by an edict of the same year; they will be obliged to teach the doctrine therein contained; and the bishops shall address a formal attestation of such submission to the counsellor of State charged with all matters concerning religious worship.

The bishops will ordain no persons whose names have not been submitted to the Government and approved by it.

Article 27. Pastors may not enter upon their functions before they have taken in the hands of the prefect the oath prescribed by the convention made between the Government and the Holy See. A formal attestation of this act shall be drawn up by the secretary general of the prefecture, and they shall receive a copy of the same.

Article 32. No foreigner can be employed in the functions of the ecclesiastical ministry without the permission of the Government.

Article 39. There shall be but one liturgy and one catechism for all the Catholic churches of France.

Article 40. No pastor may order extraordinary public prayers in his parish without the special permission of the bishop.

Article 41. No feast, with the exception of Sunday, may be established without the permission of the Government.

Article 45. No religious ceremony shall be held outside the edifices consecrated to Catholic worship in such cities as contain temples destined for a different worship.

Article 53. They shall not in their powers make any publication foreign to religious worship, unless they be authorized to do so by the Government.

Article 54. They shall not bestow the nuptial blessing except on such as can prove in good and due form that they have already contracted their marriage before a civil official.

Article 56. In all ecclesiastical and religious documents it will be required to observe the equinoctial calendar established by the laws of the Republic; the days shall be designated by the names they hold in that calendar.

Article 64. The salary of an archbishop shall be 15,000 francs.

Article 65. The salary of bishops shall be 10,000 francs.

Article 66. Pastors shall be distributed into two classes. The salary of pastors of the first class shall be 1,500 francs; that of pastors of the second class shall be 1,000 francs.

Article 67. The pensions which they receive, in execution of the laws of the Constituent Assembly, shall be counted as a part of their salary. The councils general of the large communes can, out of their landed property or from the taxes, accord an augmentation of salary if the circumstances require it.

Article 68. Curates and assistants shall be chosen from ecclesiastics pensioned in execution of the laws of the Constituent Assembly. The sum of these pensions and the product of offerings made to them shall constitute their salary.

Article 69. The bishops shall draw up a list of rules relative to the offerings which ministers of worship are authorized to receive for the administration of the sacraments. These rules drawn up by the bishops may not be put in force without having been approved by the Government.

Article 70. Every ecclesiastic who receives a pension from the State shall be deprived of such pension if he refuses to perform the functions which shall be confided to him.

Article 71. The councils general of the department are authorized to provide a suitable residence for the archbishops and bishops.

Article 72. The presbyteries and the gardens thereto pertaining shall, if they are not alienated, be turned over to the pastors or to the assistants in charge of the same missions. In default of such presbyteries the councils general are authorized to provide them with a suitable residence and garden.

Article 73. The foundations which have for their object the maintenance of ministers and the exercise of worship can only consist of rentals constituted in the State; they shall be accepted by the diocesan bishop, and cannot be executed except with the authorization of the Government.

Article 74. The immovable property, other than edifices destined for residence and the gardens pertaining, cannot be affected to ecclesiastical titles, nor possessed by ministers of worship by reason of their functions.

Article 75. The edifices formerly destined for Catholic worship, actually in the hands of the nation, shall be placed at the disposition of the bishops by a written order of the prefect of the department. A copy of this order shall be addressed to the counsellor of State charged with all matters concerning religious worship.

PRESAGES OF PEACE.

The Concordat signed and ratified Catholic France settled down to the enjoyment of comparative peace and security. It was, however, only the security which follows the ravages of disease, the peace of convalescence, full of weariness, languor and exhaustion. The fifty bishops installed by the new decrees could not help a feeling of discouragement as they viewed the situation. The Church, it is true, was brought back to a position of honor and importance in the nation; but it was, at the same time, weighed down by the heavy burdens of Gallicanism and Caesarism; the former severing the ties that bound it to the head and centre of Christianity, the Holy Father; the latter making it subservient to the whims and fancies of a ruler, human at most and liable through the schemes of politics to be hostile and intolerant. The former was suited to the imperialistic ambitions of Bonaparte, who had already begun to dream of the glories of the old regime; the latter was couched in the fraudulent laws of the Organic Articles; the former was to lose its force before the lapse of half a century; the latter was to last as long as the Concordat itself.

Thus it was that the outlook at the beginning of the century was little favorable to the just execution of the Concordat. With all correspondence with Rome interdicted save under civil surveillance, deprived of the right of assemblage, and bound by slavish ties to a State official who alone could administer, reward, punish, teach, or cause to teach, according to his own pleasure, all true liberty seemed to have vanished as completely as during the dark times of the Revolution. With churches, schools and colleges under the direction of politicians, the right of ecclesiastical censure denied, and the number of aspirants to the priesthood limited, the religious society of France had become little more than an annex to the State, inferior in importance and subordinate to it in all things. The religious congregations were dispersed, the missionaries were forbidden to exercise their zeal, and for the thirty millions of Catholics in the country there were only eight thousand priests of whom fully two thousand bore the taint of the constitutional oath.

The bishops themselves were for the most part victims of the revolutionary tempest. Some of them had come forth from prison or from the foot of the scaffold whereon they had seen their fathers, brothers and friends brutally butchered by frenzied mobs. Others had come back from an exile wherein they had guarded religiously the dear image of the French Church and the hope of her speedy restoration. "But it was the Church they had seen flourishing under the shadow of a kingly sceptre, the Gallican Church with its gaudy livery and its royal servitude decorated with the names of privilege and liberty. Accustomed to receive favors from the hand of power, it was easy for them to transfer their adulatory homage from the thrones of Louis XIV. and Louis XVI. to the boots and spurs of him who, after all, had just opened to them the gates of their country and filled his native land with glory."

CORONATION OF NAPOLEON.

It is not wonderful, therefore, that the will of the Conqueror should remain uppermost in all church affairs during the course of the Consulate, when only a few courageous and noble souls dared to stand forth in the defence of ecclesiastical rights and liberties. The Consulate was termed the Lune-de-miel, the honeymoon, in this new union of Church and State; but its joys, such as they were, were to feel ere long the bitterness entailed by the unreasoning and imperious exactions of an overbearing consort.

The soldier who had risen to the command of armies had been honored with the title of First Consul; his head, yet uncrowned, was restless till it should feel upon it the emblem of royalty. It was his ambition to be called, and to be like Charlemagne, an emperor; he desired that the consecrating oils in the great ceremony should be conferred by no less a personage than the Holy Father himself, and he wished that the Pope should perform this ceremony at Paris. The venerable Pontiff, when apprised of this new demand of Bonaparte, was at a loss how to respond. He looked for counsel to his most prudent friends, and above all to the great Giver of light, and then weighing in the balance the great harm he knew must come from a formal refusal, and the immense benefits he felt must accrue to the Church from so slight a sacrifice, he determined, leaving the issue to Divine Providence, to gratify this wish of the General. He did not do so, however, before renewing his protest against the obnoxious Organic Articles, and obtaining from Bonaparte a promise of their speedy revokal.

In compliance with these resolves, the Holy Father set out from Rome on November 2, 1804, and after a journey of nearly a month's duration, through provinces once hostile, but now enthusiastic in their greetings, he reached Fontainebleau on Sunday, November 25th. Here he was met by Bonaparte who displayed at first an apparent desire to shower every honor upon his illustrious guest. Yet even this short stay near Paris was marked by the same evidences of fickleness and selfishness on the part of the First Consul, as were shown in his every relation with the Holy See. At one time it would seem as if nothing were too good for the aged Pontiff, and the Consul, to demonstrate this conviction, would display the most utter obsequiousness to his spiritual superior; an hour afterwards the Holy Father was made to feel most keenly the sense of humiliating dependence upon his tormentor. Yet the spirit of the martyr bore up bravely through storm and sunshine. He met the delegation sent to him from the French Senate with a calm undisturbed serenity that drew expressions of admiration from men hostile to the very name of religion; he forebore any words of reproach against the unwarranted demands of Bonaparte. There were, however, some things upon which he insisted strongly, and without which he would refuse, even on the eve of the great day, to be present at the coronation. There were among the French bishops men who had signed the Civil Constitution during the Revolution in defiance of ecclesiastical warnings to the contrary. Still unrepentant, they hoped under the protection of Bonaparte to continue in the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction without yielding proper submission to the Holy See. To compel them to this latter course was the determined policy of Pius VII. though the constitutional bishops found a ready ally in the First Consul himself. The latter at first endeavored to gloss over the objections of the Pope, hoping that in the excitement of the day the coronation ceremony might take place before any action would be taken in regard to the obnoxious bishops. But Pius VII. was far too vigilant to become a victim to this deception. The aged Pontiff demanded the act of submission as a necessary condition before the great ceremony should proceed, and Bonaparte, tacitly acknowledging his defeat, yielded. The constitutional bishops at his command repaired to the presence of the Holy Father and complied fully with his wishes.

On the evening of December 1st, the Holy Father learned for the first time that the new Emperor had never contracted an ecclesiastically legal marriage with Josephine, his reputed wife. Despite the fact that all preparations for the great ceremony had been completed, the Pope sent word to Napoleon that he should refuse to take part in the coronation on the morrow unless the Emperor and Josephine should contract their marriage vows that very night in the presence of a duly authorized priest of the Church. Again the Emperor, fretful and impatient as he was, yielded to the demands of the Pope, and the marriage ceremony was performed at midnight in the chapel of the Tuileries in the presence of Cardinal Fesch, uncle to Napoleon. The following day, December 2nd, the Conqueror of Europe, the great Dictator of France, realized the dream of his lifetime. The solemn ceremony of his consecration and coronation as Emperor of the French took place in the great cathedral of Notre Dame in the midst of all the splendor which the united resources of Church and State could afford. The ceremony began shortly after ten o'clock, when Napoleon, proceeding with Josephine to the foot of the altar, in the presence of the Holy Father made the solemn promise that he would maintain peace in the Church of God. The two candidates for royalty knelt upon cushions and received from His Holiness the oils and imperial consecration. Napoleon then ascended the altar, and taking the crown into his own hands placed it upon his head, after which he took up the smaller crown of the Empress and bearing it to Josephine crowned her. She received the diadem kneeling. The ceremony was concluded with the Te Deum.

Pius VII. returned to Rome after what was to him a humiliating and exacting journey. Indeed he could congratulate himself that he had at all escaped perpetual exile at Paris. Before he had left that city, the new Emperor, flushed with his recent glories, conceived the plan of retaining the Pope at Paris. The latter, however, had prepared himself for the demand and could answer courageously, that if they were to use force they would have at Paris only a poor monk called Barnabas Chiaramonti. Before he had left Rome he had arranged that in such an emergency a new Pope would be immediately elected.

THE AFFAIR OF JEROME.

Even at the entrance of the Eternal City, new complications met to annoy and confuse him, which, however, he settled with his usual diplomatic firmness and condescension. The affair of Prince Jerome was just then attracting attention. The latter, a lad of nineteen, and brother of the Emperor, had married while in America, December 24, 1803, a certain Miss Patterson, a descendant of one of Maryland's best families. The ceremony was performed by Archbishop Carroll, and was valid in the eyes of the Church. Upon his returning to France with his young bride he was met by the anger of his imperial brother, who as soon as possible wrote to Pope Pius VII.: "I have several times spoken to Your Holiness about a brother, nineteen years old, whom I sent on a frigate to America, and who after a month's stay, married in Baltimore—although a minor—a Protestant daughter of an American merchant. He has just returned; he feels the extent of his fault. I have sent back Miss Patterson, his alleged wife, to America. According to our laws the marriage is null. A Spanish priest so far forgot his duty as to give the nuptial blessing." Napoleon then proceeds to request the Pope to declare the marriage invalid, giving as his principal reasons: That the lady was a Protestant; that Jerome was yet a minor according to French law; that the Gallican Church of France held it invalid, and that the marriage was clandestine and null according to the Council of Trent. To all these objections the Holy Father answered that the marriage was entirely valid, that it was not subject to the Council of Trent, the decrees of which had not been published in America, and that it was not in his power to annul the same unless stronger reasons were brought forward to warrant such action. To this determination the Pope adhered unflinchingly, despite the threats and revengeful actions of Napoleon. Even later, in 1807, when Jerome was married to a princess of Wurtemburg, the Holy Father, far from consenting, renewed his declaration as to the validity of the first marriage.

Napoleon, now at the summit of his political and military career, looked forward to still other conquests. He had crowned himself Emperor of the French at Paris; he received another crown at Milan, making him king of Italy. Then came Austerlitz and Jena and Eylau to humiliate Austria and Prussia and Russia. He became a king-maker by placing his brothers upon the thrones of Naples, Holland and Westphalia. The battle of Wagram, 1809, brought Austria to the feet of the Emperor, who demanded in marriage the hand of the Austrian Emperor's daughter, the Princess Maria Louisa. Josephine, her claims long vanished, was divorced from Napoleon upon the plea of State necessity. An emperor to be an emperor indeed, must be able to look upon the children who shall carry his great name to posterity. The marriage of Josephine and Napoleon had been fruitless in this regard; reasons of State, therefore, demanded, according to Napoleon, that a dissolution should take place, and that a new empress be called to the throne. This reasoning of Napoleon was accepted by Europe; only the Holy Father withheld his approbation and assent. Josephine was divorced and the Emperor remarried to Maria Louisa. It was on this occasion that the terms were coined in the ecclesiastical world "the red and the black cardinals," at the great ceremony which was performed by Cardinal Fesch in the Tuileries, April 2, 1810. Of the twenty-nine cardinals then in Paris, thirteen, including Consalvi, refused to honor the occasion with their presence. This mark of disapprobation was punished by the Emperor who besides depriving them of their salaries forbade them to wear the colors or insignia of their cardinalatial rank. Hence their designation as the black cardinals. These two divorces betray sufficiently the shallow honor of Napoleon in dealing with the Church, a quality which other events of this period brought more into evidence.

The vainglorious assumptions of the Emperor knew no bounds. Petted and flattered where he was not feared, he often smiled as he heard himself compared with Alexander, Caesar, or Charlemagne. He designed as a means of greater glory the complete solidification of his empire under his own supreme control. Only one obstacle lay in the way of his colossal ambition. He chafed at the thought that there was yet in Italy one little state which would hold out against his pretensions; and then, hurried on by the lust of power, and blinded by prosperity, this pretended successor of Charlemagne proceeded against the Pope. Again the aged Pontiff remonstrated. He reminded Napoleon of his former injustice in the matter of the Organic Articles; he reproached him for the injurious dispositions of the Civil Code which he had introduced into France, especially the law granting divorce, the tendency of which laws was to render the discipline of the Church almost null; and now in the face of this new danger, the projected subjugation of the States of the Church, he reminded the Emperor of the judgments that the Almighty must send upon those who disregard His Divine ordinances. The words of the Pope, instead of moderating the intentions of Napoleon, served only to fill him with violent anger. He determined thenceforth to cast aside all promptings of conscience and to take immediate steps for the complete subjugation of Rome. Benevento and Ponte Corvo at once fell into his hands; his troops took possession of Ancona and all cities on the Adriatic coast; Rome itself was invaded; the Papal militia was incorporated with the French; the Pope was deprived of every official necessary for the direction of ecclesiastical affairs, and surrounded by a guard in his own palace of the Quirinal.

EXCOMMUNICATION OF NAPOLEON.

For these outrages the Holy Father addressed Napoleon: "By the bowels of the mercy of our God we exhort, we pray, we conjure you, Emperor and King Napoleon, to change your designs, to clothe yourself again with those sentiments which you manifested at the beginning of your reign. Remember that there is a God and King above you; remember, and always keep before your mind, that you will see very soon and in a terrible manner how those who command others shall by Him be judged with the utmost rigor." The holy Pontiff then published in the face of Europe a solemn protest against the unjust pretensions of Napoleon.

In a frenzy of rage the Emperor made answer to this complaint from the French camp at Schoenbrunn by declaring Rome an imperial and free city. On June 10, 1809, the pontifical standard was taken down from Castle San Angelo and the tri-color hoisted in its place. The same day Pius VII. and Cardinal Pacca, hearing of the event, exclaimed sorrowfully, in the words of the dying Savior: "Consummatum est." The Pope had long felt the necessity of excommunicating his enemies, but had forborne up to this time in the hope that the Emperor might display some spirit of repentance. As soon as he perceived that such hope was groundless, he only needed this crowning act of sacrilege to close the doors of his heart, and to proceed to make use of the spiritual arms of the Church. That same night the venerable Pontiff signed the Bull of Excommunication against Napoleon and all concerned in this spoliation. A courageous man was found who, before the morning, affixed this Bull to the doors of the principal churches of Rome. It was of course torn down as soon as discovered and carried to Napoleon, who was then in camp at Vienna.

Two years before, in July, 1807, the Emperor had asked scornfully: "What does the Pope mean by the threat of excommunicating me? Does he suppose that the arms will fall from the hands of my soldiers?" It was but a few years later when the arms did actually fall from the hands of his soldiers in the great retreat from Moscow when famine and cold tore them from their grasp.

ARREST OF THE POPE.

The Emperor now determined to proceed against the person of the Pope. General Radet was commissioned to arrest the Holy Father and Cardinal Pacca and to conduct them immediately away from Rome. The story of that arrest and the indignities heaped upon the aged Pontiff during his journey could not well be told in a few pages. We will then make it suffice to narrate only the salient facts.

At six o'clock on the morning of July 6, 1809, the French troops burst into the palace of the Quirinal. Radet, after a very few words of explanation, seized the Holy Father, and hurried him, with his faithful Cardinal Pacca, into a dingy carriage which was waiting in readiness. The Pope was absolutely without proper provision of clothing or money. There was no leave-taking, no words of consolation from his faithful subjects, but as a criminal is dragged away to punishment, so was Pius VII. carried out of Rome, across the Campagna to the north, until he reached the place of his captivity at Savona. Here he remained for three years, always under restraint and closely guarded.

AT SAVONA.

In the meantime the imperial jailer made use of every expedient to break down the firm will of his august prisoner. It was shortly after the marriage of Napoleon and Maria Louisa that the Emperor, acting upon the advice of the Austrian Prince Metternich, sent the Ritter von Lebzeltern, envoy of Austria to the Holy See, to attempt a mediation. In this meeting the Emperor proposed that the Pope should take up his residence at Avignon, while retaining his title to the temporal sovereignty; if he wished to reside in Rome, he must resign the temporal sovereignty, though permitted in such case to keep up the outward forms of Papal independence such as receiving and sending ambassadors and envoys. He declared at the same time through Lebzeltern, that he had no need of reconciliation with the Pope; that his bishops had the necessary powers for the granting of matrimonial dispensations, that the Code Napoleon authorized civil marriage, and that in the prime difficulty of all, the institution of bishops, he could set aside the action of the Pope and make use of a national council. The answer of Pius VII. was firm and uncompromising. He rejected the proposal of resigning his temporal power, he demanded free communication with his bishops and the faithful. He dismissed Lebzeltern without any concessions whatever, leaving the case exactly as it stood before that envoy's visit.

The anger of the Emperor upon learning the mind of the Pope did not prevent him from making another attempt at reconciliation. This time he sent two of the red cardinals, Spina and Caselli, formerly the Papal negotiators for the Concordat, who met with no greater success. Napoleon now determined to take the reins of ecclesiastical government into his own hands. He began this course by appointing Cardinal Maury, the Bishop of Montefiascone, to the post of Archbishop of Paris. The measure met with instant condemnation, especially from Pope Pius VII. who, writing to the Cardinal, reproached him for betraying the Church: "You are not ashamed," he said, "of taking part against Us in a contest which we only carry on to defend the dignity of the Church." To these remonstrances of the Holy Father the unhappy Cardinal paid no heed. For daring to thus utter his condemnation of the Emperor's conduct and Maury's treachery, Napoleon determined to punish the Pope. The apartments of the Holy Father were broken into by imperial orders, all writing materials were taken away, his books, even his breviary, were forbidden him, his servants were sent away to Fenestrelle, his household expenses were cut down (five pauli, about fifty cents a day for each person being allowed for the maintenance of his household), the carriages he had used were sent to Turin, and even the fisherman's ring was demanded and sent to Paris. Before this was done, however, the Pope broke the ring in two.

Napoleon now began to seek precedents in history for the deposing of the Pope. Not succeeding in this he began a systematic persecution of priests and laymen suspected of too ardent piety, hoping thus to render devotion to the exiled Pope odious. Chafing at the ill success of all these subversive measures Napoleon determined upon a final scheme. He recalled the independence of the Russian czar in matters of Greek Church discipline; he reflected that George III. was undisturbed by any show of independence on the part of the English hierarchy. Why, therefore, should not Napoleon, the conqueror of Europe, make to himself a new schism, a new hierarchy, institute his own bishops, and be free from the troublesome superintendence of the Pope? The idea was inviting, and the Emperor immediately took steps towards its accomplishment. A great council was called at Paris. Its permanent presiding officer was Cardinal Fesch, the uncle of the Emperor, and it numbered among its deliberators one hundred and four French and Italian bishops. Like other councils it discussed matters of universal importance, but its chief debates concerned the canonical institution of the French hierarchy. In this matter the council decided that no bishop might be considered legitimate who had not obtained his canonical institution from the great Father of the faithful. Yet that the council might not displease the Emperor it was decided that a deputation of bishops be sent to Savona to again beg the Holy Father to institute the candidates proposed. Again the Pope renewed his refusal, though, for the sake of peace, he agreed that if the sovereign Pontiff should delay such institution for six months, it might then be granted by the metropolitan or senior bishop. This was merely a delegation of power, not a cession, and was granted only for the emergency of the time being.

The Council of Paris was, taken collectively, null, inasmuch as it was convoked and carried on without the requisite conditions. Its decrees were, therefore, without any binding force. In fact, even the Emperor himself recognized this and was only too happy to find a pretext for its dissolution.

AT FONTAINEBLEAU.

Napoleon now perceived that if he was to gain anything over the will of the Pope he must contrive to have his illustrious prisoner nearer to his own person. Under the pretext, therefore, that the English ships were hovering about Savona to liberate the Pope, the Emperor shortly after the termination of the Council of Paris, caused the Holy Father to be removed secretly to the palace of Fontainebleau. (June 16, 1812).

The conduct of the Emperor during the stay at Fontainebleau was in keeping with his past behavior. Under a specious display of ceremonial reverence towards Pius VII. he concealed a course of cruel treatment unworthy of a man, much less of a sovereign. It is true, the palace of Fontainebleau was not wanting in regal magnificence, that the table of the Pope was all that might be desired, and that the servants who surrounded him showed due respect for their spiritual ruler. At the same time the Emperor himself acted the part of a bully and braggart towards a weak and feeble old man. An insulting tone of voice ever accompanied the most insulting demands, until the Pontiff worn out and half delirious with agony was made to yield to the most unwarrantable demands. Thus it was that upon the bed of sickness the Holy Father was finally led to apply his signature to a Concordat which, in a state of health, he would have repudiated in the most decided terms. It must be remembered, however, that this yielding was not in an affair of faith and morals, nor did it concern the Universal Church; it was a cession for the time being of temporal rights, not even a final session, but one made temporarily in the interests of peace, and as such did not affect the Papal position as the teacher and ruler of all the faithful. The Emperor, in his joy at this apparent victory, began at once to show unwonted kindness towards the Pope, and as a sign of his good will, permitted the old cardinals, the faithful black cardinals, to return from prison and exile to comfort him in his captivity. This concession proved unfortunate for Napoleon, for scarcely had they gained access to the Sovereign Pontiff than they began to represent to him the immense importance of the Concordat which he had signed. It was represented as a renunciation of all those inalienable rights which belonged to him, not personally, but as the Sovereign Ruler of the Roman States, a most humiliating concession after all he had hitherto borne in their defence. The Holy Father in deep sorrow protested that the document was not definitive, but merely a preliminary statement, which should be reconsidered before publication, so that the Concordat of that year was really without Pontifical authority. Thereupon, he made known to Napoleon his objections, retracted everything contained in the Concordat, rendering it thereby null. This decision of the Sovereign Pontiff only rendered the Emperor all the more furious, and incited him to renew the discomforts of his prisoner. His cardinal advisers were again sent into exile or to prison, while he commanded that the Concordat of 1813 should be everywhere executed without further delay.

RETURN OF THE POPE TO ROME.

But the hour had already sounded for the total ruin of the tyrant. He who had trodden Europe under foot, now discovered Europe armed to meet him. With Germany consumed by a superhuman resolve to be free; with his old generals weary of fighting and struggling for the glory of a single man; with even his own relative, Murat, a partial traitor; with murmurings and threats resounding on all sides, Napoleon was not slow to perceive that his fortunes were in a precarious state. The year went by and battles were fought; some gained, some lost. The great campaign against Russia, with its consequent humiliating retreat had given the signal. The great Conqueror, who had once claimed a kind of sovereignty over a large part of Europe, now found France hardly able to uphold his imperial authority. In his desire to repair some of the wrongs he had perpetrated he liberated the Holy Father, in the beginning of the year 1814. But the repentance came too late. Already the enemy stood before the gates of Paris, and Napoleon learned that the day of his imperial domination was at an end. In his despair he fled to Fontainebleau, and there, in the very same chamber wherein he had confined his spiritual superior, he signed the articles of his abdication (April 6, 1814). His fate was soon sealed by those triumphant powers against which he had so long contended, and he retired a humbler man to his place of exile upon the island of Elba.

RETURN OF PIUS VII.

Meanwhile Pius VII., who was by this time far on his way to Rome, was waiting at Imola for the final ending of the great tragedy which was taking place in France, and hearing of the downfall of his old-time foe, he hurried on with all dispatch to Rome. He arrived there on May 24, 1814, and made a solemn entrance into the Eternal City, whence five years before, he had been dragged away with so much violence. The joy and enthusiasm of the people, augmented by the memories of recent usurpation and tyranny, were unbounded. It was not alone that Rome had regained her sovereign but the Church also had again her beloved head, and all the Catholic world took part in the triumph of Religion over the unbridled ambition of her enemies.

It is true the storm had not entirely subsided. Napoleon again broke forth from captivity, and the Holy See for a moment trembled lest new outrages might yet be perpetrated against the Church. But before the danger could have been brought to its accomplishment, the newly arisen Napoleon was again overthrown at Waterloo, June 18, 1815, after which he was exiled beyond all hope of return, to the lonely island of St. Helena, where he died on May 5, 1821, after six years of penance.

Peace now settled upon the troubled Church. Religion once more dried the tears of sorrow, and the Pope, restored to the love of his faithful people, began to give his attention to arts nobler than that of war; the raising up of Catholic peoples in the knowledge of that God, Who, after purging them in the land of bondage, had overwhelmed their enemies and brought them to newer and richer prospects in the land of promise.

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CHAPTER IV.